Another Shot At This
by Habes non Vita
Summary: John-117 lost a part of himself the day Cortana died. Then, after he is put in cryosleep on an ONI mission, he meets a mysterious voice, that can send him back to the Forward Unto Dawn, and finds himself thrust back in time. Will he be able to set things straight this time? Or will he let history repeat itself?
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter One; What If?_

What if things were different? What if he had known what was going to happen? What if he could have one last chance to save her?

John-117 sat in his quarters alone. His armor was on the ground in front of him, and he was sitting on his bed, staring at the disassembled dark green armor. He breathed a heavy sigh as he stood up, heading for the door. Life almost wasn't worth living with out her. He never got used to the quiet. Cortana would speak quite often, as he headed into the battle, most likely from the nervousness that had built up from so many close calls.

He pushed the button next to the door, and it slid into the roof. John walked out into the Infinity's hallways, his destination was the War Games Simulator. It was his best form of entertainment to comment on what the losing teams had done wrong, and then tell them how they should've done it.

Today was the first day of the Infinity Team Slayer Tournament. Twenty-seven teams had gathered to face off to prove that they were the best. John had considered entering, but he wanted all the teams to have a fair chance. The observation room overlooking the simulation field was filled with various Spartans, all cheering for their friends and teams.

Like always, as he entered a room, every last one of the occupants turned and stared at him, many seeing his bare face for the first time. John calmly walked over to the corner, and looked out the window. Several Spartans were fighting on a map called Erosion. The judges of the competiton had been bored out of their minds after the first three rounds of the slaughter fest.

John sighed as he heard the joyful cheering of the Spartan IVs as their team won the match. He was being deployed on a top secret mission, and even he didn't know of the details. He had three hours to prepare. John slowly put on his armor, piece by piece, which comsumed the waiting period. He grabbed his Assualt Rifle out of the corner of the room, and headed to the Pelican bay, where he was to be informed on his mission.

The cheers echoed through out the almost empty halls of the Infinity, and Humanity's Hero almost felt obsolete. The new Spartans were cheaper, weaker, but numerous. They treated him as a killing machine, not a human.

The Pelican bay was deserted, save for a small group of people in suits, and Captain Lasky. "Chief," Lasky adressed him as the Spartan approached. "They won't exactly give me any information on the mission, but, I hate to tell you," Lasky's voice was apologetic. "What they did tell me was that it involves you getting into a cryo pod. Which I can understand your hatred for them."

John inwardly groaned. He swore the day Cortana fell to rampancy, that he would never use those wretched things again. He would wait the slipspace travel out. "I'll do it, sir," he replied loyally. He would do it, even though he said he wouldn't. It had something to do with the chain of command.

"If you'll come with us, 117," one of the guys in a suit said. John followed him into the Infinity's cryo bay, and stopped outside of pod 16. It was the number of the one that he had stayed in aboard the Dawn, and he intended to use this one, as if he felt some sort of connection to it. He lay down, allowing the sleep to overcome him...


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two; Awakening_

_"What if you had another chance?"_

_The voice was unexpected, and John had no idea where it had come from. As far as he could tell, it sounded like Cortana, or a younger Halsey. The two were practically the same. He was standing in the middle of a vast white void, with no boundaries that he could see._

_"Could you change things that happened in the past, if you were given the chance?"_

_"What do you mean? This is only a dream in cyrosleep," John responded to the voice._

_"If only you knew the truth."_

_"What truth?_

_"The UNSC Infinity went on its last mission while you were in cryosleep. The warship was ambushed by thousands of CCS Cruisers, all under the control of the Strom Covenant. You, humanity's savior, perished while asleep..."_

_"Wait...what?" John was baffled. None of this made sense. "If I'm dead, then how am I talking to you?"_

_"I have the power to bring you back. Back to the Forward Unto Dawn. But if I bring you back, in the past, then you would have to do something for me."_

_"What is it?"_

_"I want you to prevent humanity from discovering Requiem. If you make it back to Earth, wipe the coordinates from the ship you use. Promise me this."_

_John thought about it for a minute. He could relive the past, and perhaps change it, and the only thing that he had to do was stop humanity from finding Requiem. Avery Johnson, Miranda Keyes, her father Jacob Keyes were all gone. There was nothing he could do for them. But he had the chance to save Cortana...It was worth it._

_"I'll do it."_

_"Excellent. You will awaken shortly. You mustn't tell anyone of me, not even your ancilla. I bid you farewell, and good luck. Don't forget what you promised me..."_

_"Wait. The Infinity already has the coordinates to Requiem. How would I stop them?"_

_"That is for you to decide. If you leave before they arrive, the ship will be destroyed by the Prometheans. But if you wish to spare them...you have little time..."_

John heard the familiar hiss of the pod opening, and the stale air escaping the pod's frozen interior. His vision blurred as he awoke, and saw the cryo bay outside his pod. It looked nothing like the Infinity's. There was random objects floating by, and snow had covered some of the ground around the other pods. This looked more like the Dawn... The objects sank to the floor, indicating that gravity had been restored.

John looked up, and saw the manual release. He yanked the lever down, and kicked the door open. The terminal was emitting a small ball of blue energy, and John's heart skipped a beat. No way this was happening. He walked slowly over to the terminal, as the blue ball began to take a humanoid form.

"What's wrong John? You look like you've seen a ghost," Cortana said, folding her arms. John collasped to the floor in front of the terminal. His heart was pounding in his throat.

"It's been awhile. Want to catch me up?" he managed to say. Cortana chuckled.

"Cryo sleep made you forget, did it? We blew up the Ark, and on our way out the portal closed on us. We got lost in space, and you went into cryo sleep. But that was four-"

"Four years, seven months, and ten days ago," John finished. "And I already know all of that."

Cortana looked at him in surprise. "How'd you know?"

"This has already happened before. All of it." Cortana stared at him with a suspicious look. "I can tell you what's going to happen in the future, if you'd like."

"John," Cortana started, "Cryo sleep can cause dreams that seem real sometimes, which is what I betting happened to you. You think it has all happened, but it was a dream."

"That wasn't a dream. I'll prove it," John responded, keeping his promise to the mysterious voice, and not mentioning her. He grabbed his Assault Rifle from the slot he had put it in years ago. "You are currently in your eighth year of service, and fighting rampancy."

Cortana looked at him again. "This is getting kinda creepy. First you know how long you were asleep, and now you know something else."

"You woke me because you detected something aboard the Dawn, which turns out to be the Storm Covenant, a smaller group of Covenant still holding to their beliefs."

Cortana was speechless. She had detected some life forms come aboard, but she had to know if John was right. "Yank me, this I have to see."

John put the AI chip in his helmet, and then he noticed something. He was in his Mark VI armor. Not the Mark VII that he had woken up in the first time. Cortana looked the exact same as she did when they were on the Ark. Now that he thought about it, his Assualt Rifle looked like an older model than the others. Maybe it was a dream...

John slowly walked through the empty corridors, until he reached the room where the Requiem had scanned them. "Now, an orange sensor scan will scan the ship. Cortana scoffed, but as John stepped forward the orange light wall scanned the room.

"John, I think I'm willing to believe you now," Cortana stated.

They continued into the room with the sealed elevator doors. "You'll have to pry them open," Cortana pointed out. John put his hands between the doors, and pulled them apart with all his might. They slowly opened, and John dove to the side, as two crates flew by and into the shaft. "That was most likely caused by the pressure in the room."

John jumped into the shaft, and began to climb up the ladder-like rungs that were conveintly right there. He pulled himself up, and threw himself to the left. Pieces of the ship fell off, and down to where he had been hanging only seconds before.

John strained as he climbed up the wall. He still hadn't gotten used to his muscles after several years of cryosleep. His thoughts wandered to the voice. Had he really died? Now that he thought about it, it made more sense that it was a dream. Cortana couldn't have possibley changed his armor while he was in the cryotube.

John jerked out of his thoughts as more pieces fell, threatening to knock him off. "John, watch out!" Cortana cried as the Spartan jumped to the side. With a few more jumps he pulled himself up to where the stealth elite with the energy sword had been, seemingly like he was waiting for the Spartan.

But the elite wasn't there...In its place was a BR55 Battle Rifle. As expected, it was black, and less angular than the ones he had seen aboard the Infinity. He picked it up, not mentioning the elite that was supposed to be there to Cortana. He didn't know what to make of it. He was right on every thing, but the elite.

He aimed through the scope of the battle rifle, and into the bridge of the Dawn. Elites and grunts were standing around as they had been the first time John had experienced this. "Watch this," John told Cortana, as he picked up two frag grenades that were in the door to the bridge. He tossed one at the elite manning the controls of the blastsheild, and fell back to cover.

The grenade exploded, killing the elite, and throwing the grunts into a panic. The other elites remained calm, and aimed their Storm Rifles in every direction, trying to find the grenade thrower. John carefully set the crosshairs of the battle rifle on an unsuspecting elite, and squeezed the trigger.

The triple burst struck the elite, its sheilds held, but it scared the shit out of it. The Minor whipped around, and unleashed several rounds of plasma at John's postion. Another frag landed next to it. It exploded, shrapnel embedding into the poor Sangheili. Purple blood poured out from the wounds, and the elite died from the injuries.

John walked into the room, battle rifle popping the grunts dead. One headshot after another. "We might just have stumbled onto a rouge salvage fleet. They don't seem to be wearing standard combat gear," Cortana said. "But since you seem to know everything, am I right?"

John strode up the ramp that lead to the blast sheild controls. "Not really," he answered as he pushed the button. The blastshield slowly lifted up, revealing the Covenant fleet that was stationed outside of Requiem. "That cruiser is on a intercept course!" Cortana shouted to him.

"We let it do that," John said. He had plans to get everything right this time, and that would mean that they never touch down on the metal planet.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Cortana said, nervously.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three; Alternative_

"Landing craft! Flanking us!" Cortana shouted. The Covenant CCS Cruiser was coming closer to the remains of the _Dawn, _and she was getting more nervous every minute.

John pulled his MA5D off his back, and took up a defensive postion next to the blast shield controls. He aimed it at one window, and waited for the Phantom to breach the bridge. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," John told her. _I just hope I can change the future. Requiem was the cause of all my problems, so we can't get sucked in the gravity well._

The Phantom pulled alongside the window, and sent the boarding tube into the window, disrupting the gravity. Crates and dead bodies were sucked out into the empty void of space, while John held on to a metal bar. The window shielded, and several Covenant forces jumped out. Four grunts led by a single elite major.

John set his BR55 on the ground as he reached for one of his grenades. Pulling the pin out, he stood up and threw it toward the aliens. He snatched up his battle rifle and jumped over the edge of the platform, and ran toward the elite. The grenade detonated, killing three grunts and wounding the fourth.

The elite fired several rounds of scorching hot plasma from its storm rifle, most missing but a few hitting John. The Spartan already had his knife in hand, and lunged at the Sangheili, managing to sink the blade into the aliens throat. With a growl, the elite slowly bled out onto the metal floor of the _Dawn._

"We need to get off of this ship," Cortana informed him. "The faster we get out of here, the faster we can worry about fixing my...you know."

"Yeah, I know," John replied. As far as he knew, the _Infinity _was already on its way to Requiem, so that was the best option. John turned toward the Phantom, still parked next to the window. "And there's our ride out of here." Thinking back, John wondered why he and Cortana didn't escape with the Phantoms in the first place.

He walked over to the tube, and crawled inside, crawling straight into the main body. It was empty, save for a few crates of Covenant weapons. The door to the cockpit was wide open, and there wasn't a pilot in the seat. Apparently, the elite dead on the floor in the _Dawn _was the pilot.

"This might be a bumpy ride," John said, pushing the accelerator forward, flying away from the wrecked hell hole that had been his prison for the past four years, seven months, and ten days.

There was an uneasy silence for three hours after they left, and Requiem was just a small gray dot in the distance. "Umm...John?" Cortana's voice seemed uncertain and confused. "Did you see the Forerunner planet we were orbiting?"

John's mind instantly flashed back to the voice he had met in cryosleep. It had said that he couldn't tell anyone of the planet Requiem. To prevent humanity from discovering Requiem. "What planet?" He hated to do it, but his hand was forced. It was the only chance he had to regain Cortana, even if it meant using her rampancy against her.

"I'm not crazy, not yet," Cortana replied. "I know what I saw. I saw a planet."

"Perhaps it was just a figment of your imagination."

"Really John? What are you hiding?"

"Nothing."

There was silence in the Phantom, and Cortana had changed the frequencies to intercept any UNSC signals. As John had expected, the radio remained silent.

"So, why are we flying out into the middle of nowhere?" Cortana asked, voice glitchy.

"We're going home," John answered, leaning back in the pilot seat. He was trying to figure out how to look surprised when they "stumbled across" the UNSC _Infinity._

"In a stolen Phantom?" Cortana sounded irratated. "Chief, we're gonna need something with slipspace capabilities. Not some dropship."

"What do you propose?" John shot back, a little more forcefully than he intended.

"Well, if we head back to the _Forward Unto Dawn, _it would be easy for you to hijack one of those Covenant Cruisers, and get us out of here."

John knew that option was out of the question. If he went near Requiem, it would cause the entrance to open, sucking him and the Covenant fleet inside. He had taken extreme caution as he had escaped on this Phantom to prevent that.

"No," he replied firmly. "I'm not going to lose you this time."

Cortana flickered red as she remained silent for a solid minute. "What's that supposed to mean?"

John mentally cursed himself as he removed his helmet, and looked Cortana in the eyes. "I had a dream in cryosleep," he lied. Well, it might have been the truth. "I woke up and you weren't there. I was alone. I felt like I had nothing to live for without you."

For the second time in the past two minutes, Cortana was speechless again. "I guess that makes sense," she replied. "But still, John, you've been acting strange since we left the ship," Cortana said, flickering red.

"And like you haven't?"

Cortana smiled for the first time in a while, being able to see the face of her Spartan again. "I have a legitimate reason for my strangeness, do you? You seem to know the future in advance, and claim that all of this has happened before," Cortana continued. "I want an explanation."

John thought about it for a moment. He really needed to get out of this situation. Before he could answer, Cortana glanced out the window of the Phantom, and gasped.

He could see the _Infinity _slowly heading their way. Apparently, they had dropped out of slipspace at the minimum safe distance.

"We're saved!" Cortana shouted as the ship drew near. "Wait, slipspace ruptures detected!"

John could only watch as several Covenant ships exited slipspace portals around the _Infinity. _"They must have been tracking the Phantom!" Cortana explained.

"Looks like we're back on duty," John commented grimly, as he put his helmet back on and floored the accelerator. The dropship flew toward the nearest hanger, hoping that it was opened.

"I've connected to the Covenant BattleNet," Cortana informed the Chief. "They are deploying dropships into every hanger that is open."

"Our objective is the bridge," John noted. As soon as he got up to the bridge, he would have to convince Lasky to turn the ship around.

"Hanger forty-nine is open," Cortana said, marking the open bay. John could see some Broadswords flying out and into the fray. Plasma and bullets flew back and forth, smashing into ships.

John guided the Phantom through the onslaught, and into the hanger forty-nine. From the dropship, he could see several Spartans fighting against a vastly larger number of Covenant forces. They had swarmed this ship faster than John had thought they could.

He saw one Spartan, and recognized her instantly. Her white Scout armor, dual pistols, it was Commander Sarah Palmer. "This is going to be great," he muttered, pulling the old assault rifle off of his back, and opening the side hatches on the Phantom.

John emptied his first clip into a group of four grunts as he jumped. His green metal boots hit the ground, leaving a small dent. Apparently, the elites noticed him, and fired every ounce of plasma they had on them in his general direction.

Ejecting the empty clip, John dove behind a stack of crates. "This just gets better and better," he sighed, as he saw the pile of human bodies in the corner. It was mostly just marines and ODSTs, but there were a few Spartans in the pile. Merely feet from the bodies, was a pile of weapons. Railguns, DMRs, battle rifles, SAWs, and anything else you could imagine.

Chief ran toward it, tossing the older model of the MA5 aside. Picking up a sniper rifle, he turned back toward the Covenant. The other Spartans had taken the opportunity when the elites had turned toward Chief to put as many bullets into them as possible.

John fired, feeling the recoil. An elite fell to the ground, its head little more than a bloody stump. Another Sangheili fell to the continuous fire of a Spartan's DMR. That's when a Spartan in red War Master armor jumped over a railing, and into the battle.

She fired her shotgun into the closest elite, blowing a hole inside of him. The Spartan then brought her knee into another elite's...crotch, and snapped its next when it doubled over. A combat knife flashed out, and a third elite fell as it was stabbed.

The last elite Minor in the hanger instantly knew it was screwed. Its eyes wandered over to where one of its superiors had dropped a fuel rod cannon. The Minor took off sprinting for the weapon.

The Spartan ran toward it the fleeing Minor, easily closing the gap between them. She was about to jump on its back when the crack of a sniper echoed in the hanger.

John stood, holding the smoking weapon. The female badass turned toward him, and started walking toward him. The other Spartans did the same.

Avoiding eye contact, John crouched over the human bodies and began to pick through the pouches and pockets in search of any ammo on hand.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" The Spartan asked, tossing her helmet to the ground. She had blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, which must have been strange to wear under a helmet.

"Gee, Loren, what's your problem?" Another Spartan removed his standard gray Recruit helmet, revealing brown hair, and green eyes.

"This guy stole my kill, Phil," Loren replied, turning toward the Spartan.

Phil glared at her. "So?"

"He thinks he's better than I am," Loren seemed mad about something. "That's what you're thinking, aren't you?" she asked John.

"John," Cortana chimed in. "I don't think that they know who you are." After thinking about it, it seemed to be a possibility. He was crouching down, so the other Spartans wouldn't see his true size. Palmer was inspecting a wrecked Scorpion a few feet away, not even looking at him.

"No matter what you say," Loren continued, "I'm still better than you. I'm the replacement for the Master-friggin' Chief."

**Author's Note: Sorry I left ya'll for so long. It has been quite hectic in the past two months. I was in a car crash, and my hands were messed up for several weeks. Then, after I recovered, my dad thought we should have a family fun day. So we went to the Boston Marathon. Guess how that turned out. Other than that, my fingers have still be sore, and I have a lot of make-up school work.**


End file.
